1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display, and more particularly, to a plasma display having an enhanced structure to completely remove impurity gas generated during manufacture of a display from a display housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flat display devices such as liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display panel (PDP) or field emission display (FED) are thin and lightweight and consume a small amount of power, so it is gradually replacing a conventional cathode ray as a display device.
The plasma display forms discharge space, i.e., discharge cells, between a pair of substrates, to display a picture, and each discharge cell is separated by partitions which prevent crosstalk between the discharge cells.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional alternating current (AC) type plasma display. Referring to FIG. 1, address electrodes 11 and partitions 13 are formed in parallel on a rear substrate 20 and a phosphor layer 12 is deposited over the address electrodes 11.
The partitions 13 keep a discharge distance and prevent an optical crosstalk between the discharge cells.
Generally, the partitions 13 have been formed by squeezing process using a dispenser and a needle. Also, the partitions 13 may be formed by a printing process in which a partition material is printed using a screen having a predetermined pattern and then cured repetitively, or by photolithography process.
Sustaining electrodes 15a are formed on the bottom surface of a front substrate 10, intersecting the address electrodes 11 of the rear substrate 20. Also, the sustaining electrodes 15a may have bus electrodes 15b for reducing line resistance. The electrodes 15a and 15b are covered with a dielectric layer 17 formed on the bottom surface of the front substrate 10.
The rear substrate 20 and the front substrate 10 are sealed by an adhesive, e.g., frit, deposited at the borders thereof.
After assembly of a plasma display is completed, impurities and impurity gas generated during manufacture remains in the plasma display, which degrades a discharge characteristic of the display, thereby lowering the performance. Accordingly, after the assembly of the plasma display, flushing gas is injected into the display via an inlet Hi and then forcibly exhausted via an outlet Ho. During this process, the internal impurities and impurity gas are removed together with the flushing gas. Such method for eliminating the impurities using a flushing gas is called a gas flushing method.
Here, flow paths of the flushing gas by the edges A, B and C of the display (as indicated by relatively large arrows) are wider than flow paths D between the partitions 13 (as indicated by small arrows), so that most flushing gas introduced into the display through the inlet Hi flows in the paths by the edges A, B and C. Removing the remaining impurities or gas from an actual image display area of the display is not sufficient. As a result, some impurities in the actual image display area are not completely removed.
To solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a plasma display comprising a path block, capable of efficiently removing impurities and gas remaining in a display, which are generated during manufacture of the display.
To achieve the above object, there is provided a plasma display comprising: a rear substrate having a picture display area including partitions arranged in parallel, address electrodes formed between the partitions and a phosphor layer deposited over the address electrodes; a front substrate having electrodes formed on the bottom surface thereof to cross the address electrodes, to be sealed with the rear substrate by an adhesive on the edge; an inlet and an outlet formed in the rear substrate, through which a flushing gas flows into and out of the display, respectively; and at least one path block for blocking flow of the flushing gas along the path adjacent to the outermost partition, such that the flushing gas injected in through the inlet mostly flows along the paths between the partitions and exists via the outlet.
Preferably, the plasma display further comprises a guide wall for enclosing the picture display area, the inlet, the outlet and the blocks.
Preferably, the inlet and the outlet are formed in the rear substrate, facing each other in a diagonal direction.